December in Munnar

2008 was surely an year of lot of fun filled travel arounds for us. We were looking for a relaxing holiday for quite some time, apart from the short, adventurous, weekend & drive get-aways we had. With club memberships its one thing that we need to plan and book it well before. And that is a bit difficult for us, we being bit of dynamic doers. I somehow followed up day after day and finally got us a 3 day booking to the almost-always-booked destination, Munnar. Of the 3 days, we only had confirmation for 2 days and we took a chance of getting it extended for another day. Booked the train tickets and we set off in mid December.

The train booking was to Maduria. We got off at Madurai, took an auto to the famous Murugan Idli kadai. The place is a 10-15 seater restaurant, which is a small one for its fame, but Breakfast was grand. Though it says Idli kadai, they do serve Dosas, Pongal, Vada, etc. We then took a bus from Madurai to Theni and then Theni to Munnar. We reached the resort only at about 2. We were very hungry and headed straight to the resort restaurant even before we stopped to enjoy the tranquil, scenic views.

Coincidentally both of our holiday destinations with Club Mahindra, since our membership with them, has been to Kerala. We truly have experienced why it is called as God's own country.

Munnar is surely known for its serenity and heartsease & the location of the resort gave us the complete dose of it. The place has an aura of romance and so also known to be honeymooners' paradise. It was 8 degrees temperature in mid December. It gets misty during mornings and evenings, sometimes throughout the day. And sometimes it was cloudy and showered too.
There are quite a few holiday activities to engage ourselves in - Trekking, Overnight camping, Tea plantation and spice garden tour, boating, indoor games (for kids too), etc. We opted for Overnight camping this time. It being the first time experience of night camping, we were quite excited. Together, there were 3 couples, one of them were newlywed. And we thought, what an adventure of night camping for a honeymooner! The place where they camp is near a 40-45 year old bungalow in the forest. They take us on a night trek, then camp fire, dinner and off to the tent. It was pretty cold and misty. Nothing after 50 mts distance from was visible, it gets that misty. Inside the tent is warm and cozy. You could hear the noise of winds hitting the tent all night. Sleep was not as disturbing as we thought it would be.The next morning, we were dropped off at the resort for beakfast. We took a cab and went around the place visiting Periyakanal Falls, Lockhart View Point, Mattupatti Dam, a botanical garden and Echo Point. Miles and miles of tea plantations and it was a beautiful experience of drive on those winding roads.The resort staff were very helpful and could extend our stay for another day. It sure was a short holiday but a much needed and relaxing one for all the peace and solacement we earned.